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Iceland May Start Prescribing Cigarettes

Should Cigarettes Be Prescription-Only?

by 8

Faced with a worrisome increase in young smokers, Iceland's government has come up with something a little radical — prescription-only cigarettes.

The country has proposed a new law that would make it illegal to buy cigarettes without a prescription from a doctor and would make cigarettes available only from pharmacies. The government hopes this practice will cut the amount of smokers from 15 percent of the total population (and 20 percent in teenagers and kids) to less than 10 percent.

Who would get a prescription to smoke? Since under the law nicotine would be classified as an addictive drug, only those who are unable to quit following addiction programs, or those who refuse to quit, would be able to get prescriptions.

If passed, I wonder if doctors in Iceland will feel uneasy about prescribing something that is known to be a major public health issue, or if the program would be the best option for reducing the amount of new addicts. What do you think?

Source: Thinkstock
SmokingHealthy LivingPublic Health

8 Comments

onlysourcherry onlysourcherry
drunk driving, alcoholism, obesity epidemic, health care costs, deaths of family members etc. I know you're thinking of second hand smoke but when you start making unhealthy or risky behaviors illegal it's a very grey area.
amber512 amber512
osc, absolutely not. 1. not all of the things you listed are addictive 2. cigarettes are harmful in ANY dose, the ones you listed are absolutely fine unless overdone. And the ones you listed harm the USER, not the user AND everyone around them. And not just sometimes, every single time someone lights up. Very different!
onlysourcherry onlysourcherry
Amber, by your standards the following things should be illegal: alcohol, pain medication, junk food, soda, coffee, skydiving, white water rafting.... where do you draw the line? Where do you leave something up to personal accountability?
ticamorena ticamorena
i wish they would prohibit the manufacture of cigarettes, but keep other forms of tobacco/nicotine; it would be unfair to abolish products with nicotine all together considering the fact that there are also other legal drugs out there - some harmful in certain cases like alcohol; others less so like caffeine. however, the main issue is to reduce the harm to bystanders etc. for one, i've been on nicotine supplements when i quit smoking and it really hit me how strong a drug nicotine is.
Yersinia Yersinia
I agree with anonymoushippopotamus in that it is ridiculous. Unfortunately, I can't say that I've never heard of a law that infringes on personal rights like this.
amber512 amber512
Let's see...an addictive substance that harms not only the user but everyone around them...why are these legal again?
tesoro tesoro
Being from Iceland I feel the need to correct certain things in this post. First of all a new law has not been proposed but a resolution. Second, it's not the government that's behind it but seven members of parliament, including two former ministers of health :) Having said that, I find the whole thing ridiculous :)
anonymoushippopotamus anonymoushippopotamus
Wow, I've never heard of a law that infringes on personal rights like this. This is ridiculous.
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